From the Main Line to Shark Tank’s Biggest Success: The Scrub Daddy Inventor

Scrub Daddy inventor Aaron Krause, the biggest Shark Tank success ever, at his office outside Philadelphia / Photograph by Jeff Fusco | Scrub Daddy sponges on a store shelf (Getty Images)

The TV show Shark Tank is in Philadelphia scouting for local contestants. So we caught up with Main Line native Aaron Krause, whose smiley face sponge Scrub Daddy is the biggest Shark Tank success of all time. And he still manufactures right in the Philadelphia area.

I grew up in … Wynnewood and am not ashamed to say I lived with my parents until I was 29. Eventually I met my wife, Stephanie, and she took me to the dark side: Voorhees. That’s where we live now.

I appeared on Shark Tank in … 2012 with my smiley-face sponge. I really wanted to make a deal with Mark Cuban. But he said to me: “You are the Scrub Daddy, but I am not a Scrub Pimp. So I’m out.” I made a deal with Lori, $200,000 for 20 percent. Double the equity I was looking for. But I’m very happy with how it turned out, and I’d say Lori is as well!

Since Shark Tank, we’ve sold … a number that I don’t personally report because we’re a private company, but the show is not inaccurate when they say more than $1 billion in sales.

When I heard that Bombas socks replaced us as the biggest Shark Tank success ever … I knew it wasn’t true. It’s all about metrics, and they are using one very specific metric. Scrub Daddy is 100 percent the most successful, but that narrative started to get stale year after year, so the show decided to change the narrative and dethrone us.

We are headquartered in … South Jersey and we have facilities in the U.K. and Hungary. We’re growing like crazy. When we first started, we were in Delco. But we outgrew our third building there and needed a really huge space. We also wanted to move somewhere where the employees working for us in Delco could keep working for us. I made a circle around our Delco factory with a 14-mile limit. And here we are in Pennsauken.

The Shark I am least fond of is … Mr.Wonderful. No one wants to deal with him. He’s the worst.

One book every entrepreneur should read is … Shoe Dog. How Phil Knight created Nike.

I go to bed at … 2 a.m. I have no choice. We are a global company. I have to be awake when the manufacturers I deal with are awake. Maybe I get four hours of “real” sleep. I sleep with my phone in my hand and am getting emails and texts throughout the night.

The biggest misconception people have about Shark Tank is … that you’re only in there for ten minutes doing your pitch and that’s that. Deal done. Far from it. I was in there for an hour-and-a-half. And there’s no deal until after you ink a deal with lawyers. Just like when you are buying a house. You come to an agreement. You agree to buy a house for this price. But then the inspector comes in. And the deal can completely fall apart. This is what makes the show real. You are watching initial negotiations. And after that, due diligence begins. Someone might say they have two patents. And then after the show is over, the lawyers want to see the patents. And then it’s like, Oh, they are patent pending. Deal off. Or you might get a deal for half the value.

My worst subject in high school was … math. Still is. That’s why I hire people good at math.

I met my wife … at Buddakan in 1998. She’s the head of PR, philanthropy, and corporate event planning, as well as a shareholder.

I got the idea for Scrub Daddy … after a sponge I was using scratched our lawn furniture. Scrub Daddy is made of a highly engineered polymer that’s a trade secret. It doesn’t scratch. It’s odor- and stain-resistant. And it smiles at you!

The worst business idea I’ve had is … Scrub Daisy, a follow-up to Scrub Daddy. But it turned out nobody wanted to spend $40 on a really elaborate dish wand that looked like a flower sitting in a vase.

The best lesson I’ve learned in business is … to not sell a product that you have exclusivity on as a commodity and get into a price war. If you have the best pizza in the world, don’t charge as if you’re just some random pizza shop. Charge as if you’re the best.

If you had told me 20 years ago that I’d be wealthy thanks to smiley sponges … I wouldn’t have believed you. I told my best friend growing up that I wanted to be a millionaire by the time I was 27. When I turned 27, he asked how it was going. I was a million dollars in debt. I didn’t go on Shark Tank for another 16 years.

My advice for Shark Tank hopefuls in Philadelphia is … watch every single episode four times and know all your numbers. Otherwise, you’ll be fish food.

Published as “One of Us: Aaron Krause” in the May 2025 issue of Philadelphia magazine.